Information About Children's Environmental Health

To properly grow, develop, and thrive, children need clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, safe food to eat, and healthy places to live, learn, and play. In many communities across New York, children's vulnerabilities are not fully understood, and children are exposed to environmental risks that can impact their health.

Why Children Are More Vulnerable to Environmental Toxins Than Adults

Children are continually growing and developing until their early adult years and are more vulnerable to environmental exposures than adults because:

Their organ systems are still developing

They eat more foods, consume more drinks, and breathe more air in proportion to their body size then adults

Their bodies are less able to breakdown some pollutants and excrete them

Their age appropriate behaviors can expose them more to chemicals and organisms